


Now You See Me, Now You Don't (Wait, Where Did You Go?)

by BackattheBein



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Angst, Brotzly Week, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 08:10:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11226870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BackattheBein/pseuds/BackattheBein
Summary: Superpower au: Todd has the power of invisibility.This was meant to be a fluffy one-shot, so stick to the beginning if that's what you want. Second half has some major angst and is less au-ish. Inspired by a tumblr post (but I can't remember where I saw it so sorry I can't tag it); for brotzly week, day 6: au's





	Now You See Me, Now You Don't (Wait, Where Did You Go?)

The first time he’d gone invisible in front of Dirk it had been an accident, of course.

*

Dirk had stayed the night at Todd’s apartment, crashing and passing out on the couch after a long day spent running around on their feet. Dirk woke up early the next morning to the sound of coffee being made.

When he didn’t see anyone in the kitchen, he just assumed that Todd had gotten it started and then went off to take a shower or get dressed, but he didn’t hear any water running either.

“Hey Dirk.” said a disembodied voice. It sure sounded like Todd’s, like it was coming from the kitchen, _but no one was in there._

It wasn’t until Dirk saw two coffee cups floating towards him that he really started to feel like something was wrong. He yelped while nearly jumping out of his skin.

The coffee mugs jolted too, falling to the floor and shattering into a million little pieces. Some of the coffee managed to spill onto a rather shocked Todd (who at the moment had been unaware that he was invisible).

“Shit!” Todd felt the hot coffee stain through his shirt. It wasn’t hot enough to burn him, thankfully, but the shirt was definitely done for. “Dirk, _what the hell?”_

Todd had thought it was unusual that Dirk hadn’t said anything to him while he was making coffee. It was rare for Dirk to not be awake and chipper in the early morning.

“Todd?! What is going on?” Dirk’s voice wobbled slightly, obviously surprised but also quite intrigued by whatever had just happened.

Todd sighed before heading back into the kitchen to get a towel. As Dirk bent down to help clean up the destroyed mugs, Todd hit him with a bombshell.

“I can turn invisible.”

Dirk was dumbfounded for all of ten seconds as the gears in his brain spun at break-neck speed before questions started pouring out his mouth. A hand and that Look from his partner and he resigned himself to sit back and listen.

*

Todd explained that he found out he could become invisible while working at the Perriman Grand not even a week before he’d met Dirk.

His boss had started yelling at him more frequently about not being at the desk when he was supposed to be. Todd had become rather irritated with his boss, because he was purposefully skipping breaks and taking more hours to make more money so he could pay for Amanda’s medicine.

It wasn’t until he saw a security tape that he realized something was wrong.

He had been working the desk for six hours without a break when his boss suddenly walked up to him pissed as hell and practically dragged him to one of their employee-only security rooms. There, Todd was forced to watch a tape, with a rather infuriated boss staring over his shoulder the whole time.

The desk that he had been at all shift appeared to be totally unmanned on the hotel’s security feed.

Todd was flabbergasted until one day when he really thought that he was going crazy because his first suspicion was that he was a vampire. He returned to his apartment one morning after having gotten in a fight with his landlord Dorian about rent money. The first thing he wanted to do was check on the nice cut he had on his face from letting Dorian get one hit on him, but in the mirror, Todd saw nothing.

The problem wasn’t that the cut wasn’t there; it was that Todd literally _saw nothing_. It was as if he wasn’t standing in front of the mirror. He had no reflection.

He reached up to touch where he knew the cut was. It was still there, and it felt like it had at least stopped bleeding. Todd pressed his fingers lightly on the wound, just to see if it still hurt.

Suddenly, his reflection appeared in the mirror. The pain had triggered something, had broken Todd’s concentration enough that he had become visible again.

After that, Todd tried everything he could think of to master his ability to turn invisible at will.

Mostly that meant he would spend thirty minutes standing in front of his mirror in the morning willing himself to turn invisible, for his reflection to disappear. He didn’t really have much time to practice, per se – he did have a real job and important things to do other than run off to become one of the X-Men.

Admittedly, when Dirk had pried his way into Todd’s life, Todd didn’t have a handle on the ability at all, and the action and adventure had been pretty distracting and life-interrupting.

Now that that was behind them, Todd sort of wanted to try again. Heck, maybe even Dirk could help him, seeing as he might have inherently more experience working with people not on the spectrum of normal.

Even though to those aforementioned normal people this development would be anything but normal, at first Dirk seemed excited and surprised that his assis-friend possessed such an interesting talent.

Later of course, this feeling turned into a mix between annoyed and affectionate, as Todd just loved using it to grind Dirk’s gears.

*

Every time after the first when he accidentally scared Dirk, Todd went invisible to make Dirk laugh.

Dirk was just so cute when he laughed, and in Todd’s opinion, he never laughed enough. That was why Todd took advantage of every opportunity. He couldn’t get enough of the way it made the sides of Dirk’s mouth turn upwards, no matter how hard he tried to scowl at Todd. He loved Dirk’s laugh lines and the way that laughter bubbled out of him, happy and sporadic just like his personality.

He knew that Dirk was particularly ticklish on his sides, and with the way he laughed, it was impossible to resist. After all the shit they’d been through and all the trauma Dirk had seen, he deserved to feel genuinely happy.

Todd made it his personal mission. No matter how many times Dirk scolded him, saying that becoming invisible just to tickle him was cheating, they both secretly loved it.

*

One calm sunny afternoon Dirk was working on making something for lunch when suddenly there was a funny feeling at his side, one that tugged at his cheeks forcing him to smile. He tried uselessly to stifle his giggles because no, he was definitely not enjoying this.

He sensed someone standing behind him, but when he turned around to say “What?” no one was there. It wasn’t until he reached out and his hand connected with Todd’s chest that Todd became visible, making Dirk jump again.

He quickly retracted his hand, his ears going slightly red from having touched Todd’s chest. “What are you doing?”

“I was tickling you.” A devilish grin spread across Todd’s face, and he had a mischievous look in his eyes.

*

_ >> this is the angsty bit. you have been warned. << _

“Accidents happen, Todd, it’s not your fault.”

A phrase that would normally be reassuring to Todd but was only sending him reeling, burying himself further inside his self-hatred and away from the light.

Dirk was still looking up at him with reverence. The ambulance jolted, but Todd’s death grip on Dirk’s hand never faltered.

It was during a case. It was supposed to help them. He was gonna be an X-Men, was going to be stealthy and find out what the bad guys were planning. He just shouldn’t have left Dirk alone.

Lord knows that the universe didn’t always favor Dirk when it came to stakeouts.

“Fuck, Dirk, I …” Todd choked on a sob that was trying to burst its way out of his chest.

Todd hadn’t been that far away when it happened, but he was gone long enough that Dirk had been nearly unconscious when Todd found him. He didn’t know how he had managed to stay invisible the entire time, but thank God he had because it had given him the advantage he’d needed to take down both of the bad guys. They were on their way to jail now.

While Dirk and Todd were on the way to the hospital.

A technician bumped into Todd, trying to get to a machine that was reading Dirk’s vitals. He was far from dying, but the men had kicked him in the chest repeatedly and hit him over the head, leaving him with a few broken ribs and a gnarly open cut on his face.

_Fucking useless. It’s all my fault, I should’ve … And then, Dirk …_

A squeeze of his hand brought him momentarily out of his funk. Dirk smiled up at Todd, blinking like it was hard to stay awake, and opened his mouth to say something. His eyes shone with something like lov—

 _No_ , Todd thought. _I don’t deserve …_

Dirk’s eyes slipped closed and Todd felt his grip on his hand loosen. Another technician shoved him out of the way. The rest of the ride, the arrival, the waiting in the lobby for Dirk to wake up passed by in a blissful blur.

*

One benefit of being able to turn invisible meant that Todd could sneak into any room in the hospital that he wanted.

He didn’t care to watch while the doctors patched Dirk up; Todd didn’t like the sight of blood, especially that of someone he lo—cared about.

 _Watch yourself_ , Todd thought, putting up his defensed.

 ** _You really think he would want you, after what you did?_** The demons in his mind were all too happy to berate him, abuse him, keep him up while he sat completely alone in the waiting room.

_I didn’t do anything; it was those bad guys who—_

**_Exactly! You weren’t there when you should have been, or else you wouldn’t be here right now, waiting for him …_ **

“Todd Brotzman?”

Pure, unadulterated relief washed over Todd. He stood and walked over to meet the nurse. _Maybe now the voices in my head will shut up for a while_ , he thought as he eagerly waited to hear what she had to say.

“Mr. Gently was in pretty bad shape, but we’ve patched him up as best as we could. He’s going to need to stay for a few nights and then he should lay low for a few days after that.”

Todd tried to keep his snicker to himself. Something told him that Dirk wouldn’t last more than one evening in the hospital before they ditched, even though he probably needed the r&r.

“We’ve got him on painkillers right now, so if you want to see him I’d do it quickly.”

Todd felt a knot growing steadily in his stomach as he headed toward Dirk’s room.

He tried to move as quietly as possible, taking the empty seat and moving it next to the bed near Dirk’s head, careful of the many machines and IVs he was hooked up to.

He tentatively reached out to grab Dirk’s hand, but halfway through he backed out. _It’s my fault he’s here, I shouldn’t …_

That was when he felt a warm something take hold of his hand, in not a firm but not a frail grip, possibly aiming for reassuring.

“Todd,” Dirk’s voice was hoarse, his throat dry, but had _something important to say, dammit._

“Yeah?” Todd tried to speak up, strong enough for the both of them, but he couldn’t help the little waver, the crack in his voice and his confidence.

“Come here,” Dirk croaked as he tugged lightly on Todd’s hand.

Todd stood up, and Dirk continued to tug on their entwined hands, pulling Todd so he was leaned over the bed.

“Dirk, what …” Todd was a little confused and a little exasperated and a whole lot of upset with himself for everything that had happened that day, blaming himself for Dirk’s current position.

But Dirk didn’t really have a problem with that position, as he could still manage to pull Todd down into a lovely, albeit slightly awkward, kiss.

The kiss might have been slow, calming, loving, warm, and all that – but it sure as hell sent Todd’s demons running.

Dirk would never blame Todd for what happened on their cases, especially in this one, and even if it was in some way Todd’s fault, Dirk would never let him fully take the blame. Todd’s invisibility, Dirk’s holistic-ness, their relationship – there were a lot of elements to sort through, to balance, to live with as they lived with one another, and it wasn’t always going to be easy. But as long as they had each other, as long as they stayed close together and helped one another with their baggage, their lot in life, they would make it work.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, thanks for reading! This is it for me for brotzly week. Will now return to current WIP, Never Let You Go. I'm not super happy with this last fic, but let me know what you think, ok? Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated <3


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